Nine year-old Lim Ding Wen has created a painting application for the iPhone. He wrote Doodle Kids for his two younger sisters. The free app allows users to fingerpaint on the touchscreen and clear it by shaking. The Malaysian boy is already fluent in six programming languages, having learned to use a computer when he was only two. We guess it didn’t hurt that his father, Lim Thye Chean, also writes applications. Altogether he has made over 20 projects, his next being a sci-fi game dubbed Invader Wars.

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Mini Financial Services has launched a new iPhone and iPod touch game dubbed MINI Liquid Assets. This is based on the retro water-filled handheld games where you pushed a button to get one object to hit another. Based on an exhibit originally designed for dealers, you shoot nickels into the Mini-Es to keep more assets while in the liquid. (We are guessing that they paid big bucks to develop the clever play on words.) The download is free at the iTunes App Store, but as this is also a commercial, the main menu has a link to your nearest BMW Mini dealer.

If you just can’t pass up a good word game, Danilo Campos’ Oddage is the one for you. With this app you need to pick out the word that doesn’t belong with the other ones. Categories include periodic table elements, county names, spices, Greek gods and trees. There are a total of 900 words in 50 categories, and each game lasts between 60 to 90 seconds. The download is $2.99. We guess this is a perfect application while waiting for the ATM or the idiot in front of you that has more than 10 items in the express lane.

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You get to play with your iPhone or iPod touch apps all the time, so next time you go on an extended trip, instead of hearing “Are we there yet?” pass your brats the phone with one of the iKids Play titles installed. One of the applications has 5 activities that include a coloring book, stories, finger painting, reading/recording aloud and a hidden image game. The company claims that it promotes tactile, listening and motor skills, visual/spatial coordination and color recognition as will as reading. More books will be available later, and for the introductory price of $2.99 at the App Store, it is definitely worth the mini-cost.

There are a few tower defense games available in the App Store, but we think we’ve come across the best in TapDefense. Aside from being a free game, it’s really well done. The gameplay progresses in difficulty just as you’d expect it to, and developer LL Group even worked in the iPhone accelerometer into the gameplay - not something you find in your typical tower defense game. One of the towers available is an earthquake tower, and when enemies approach it, you shake your iPhone or iPod touch in order to destroy them. Very nice. In all, you’ve got 42 levels, six tower types, and seven different enemies to combat. And like we said, it’s free.

Just a quick not to let you guys know that we think the new Tap Tap Dance iPhone game is fantastic. Tapulous has put out a couple versions of Tap Tap Revenge already, so we didn’t think this one would be that big a deal - we figured same game with different music. Plus, we aren’t big fans of dance music anyway. However, this game just works. We love the background visuals (of which there are quite a few), the music actually adds a lot to the game (it features tracks by artists like Daft Punk and the Chemical Brothers.) We also like the whole progression system, where you need to meet certain requirements to unlock some of the more advanced tracks and challenges. Overall, very fun. We recommend it. You can pick up Tap Tap Dance in the App Store.

I’ve always been one who enjoys a good game of Pass the Pigs, and I just gained the knowledge that the game is available in the App Store. It’s basically a dice game that uses pigs rather than, you know, actual dice. Depending on how the pigs land, you gain points, lose points, etc. The is put out by THQ, which likely explains why there is also a one-player Story Mode as well. In any event, Pass the Pigs can be found in the App Store for $2.99.